Barely Legal
by LittlePorcelainDoll
Summary: "Scooter..." she begins, a small smile curling her lips. "I think we're gonna be good friends." He gives a nervous kind of little chuckle. "Do that mean friends with benefits or..." Gaige/Scooter. Ripped out of my series of one-shots and made into it's own fic because this site needs more of this pairing.


**Rating: **M  
**Warning(s):** Heavy spoilers, cursing, brief mentions of violence, alcohol use, and sexual situations (non-graphic)  
**Setting:** Sanctuary, Gaige's first time walking through the doors. And then a time lapse several weeks later, a few hours after the mission _Where Angels To Tread Part 2 _and during the mission _Bearer of Bad News_. If you haven't done them, don't read this because it's gonna spoil shit. Seriously. Just, stop now.  
**Notes:** I just have to say... I really enjoyed writing this pairing. _A lot_. And I think it shows because of the length. I've always loved the way Scooter talks and even though I don't think I've got it down perfectly because well – it's SCOOTER – I think I did an alright job. Gaige is pretty easy and fun to write in my opinion but I would have never had thought to hook her up with Scooter. And the more I thought about it, the more it made perfect sense so I'm very glad it was suggested to me. I had a blast and I might even write them again sometime. Love it, flame it – I don't mind. Enjoy.

* * *

Gaige was not in a good mood.

The past thirty-eight hours have not been pleasant. The science fair fiasco, Marcy Holloway's (while satisfying) death, the shuttle ride out to the border planets and the ferry she had to take just to reach the gates of Sanctuary... just all one long list of reasons why her life sucks at the moment. Didn't help any that the docks were in the middle of buttfuck nowhere and she had to trek through bullymong infested ice caverns to get here. In retrospect, maybe she _shouldn't_ have done donuts that fast near precarious cliffs with the runner she had digistructed at the Catch-A-Ride station. Next time, she'll heed her past driving instructor's warnings. But right now, her driving skills – or lack thereof – wasn't the issue. Now, she was tired, sore, and in need of repairs since the circuitry in her prosthetic took a massive chomp earlier when a stray skag she hadn't seen lunged at her face with every intention to eat it. In the future, she'll upgrade her arm instead of DT for once. No point giving him fancy bells and whistles if she can't digistruct him in the first place.

Her arm swung pointlessly at her side as she made her way past the front gates, and she tried to ignore the uneasy feeling of being off balance. She petted the cool steel of her shoulder and tried not to worry. Sanctuary doesn't look like much so far, but the place is bound to have a mechanic willing enough to lend her some tools and materials. Her father left her with a modest enough sum of cash she could float for a few weeks so money isn't the problem right now. A quick glance around the place informed her that while the look of the town still had that patched up junk-heap look, it looked decent. If Vault Hunting doesn't work for her, she could maybe run some sort of repair gig in this place. The people here would most likely appreciate her talents than they ever did back home. The thought of getting a job wasn't all unpleasant just... not what she expected at the moment. Her life has been flipped upside down and it was getting easier minute by minute to accept it, but it still stings how it spiraled out of control so quickly.

Gaige briefly thinks of Marcy Holloway, and hopes she died as painfully as it looked. The bitch.

Thankfully, she didn't have to look for a mechanic long. Just moments really. Garage being right in front of her and all. Seems like her luck is finally taking the turn for the better. Stepping through the garage door, she looks around for whoever runs the place and it took her a few moments to notice a pair of legs sticking out from under a busted looking antique of a vehicle. Vaguely, she recalls Marcy's father driving a fancy antique all over the place back home. It was a sweet ride, navy blue with a platinum trim, and she remembers the many times she's wanted to stuff the exhaust pipe full with tightly bound magazines of questionable pornography just for shits and giggles. If she regrets missing out on anything in her life, it was that. Maybe one day, she muses.

"Hey, I could use some help here?" Gaige tries her hardest to keep her voice even, despite all her aches and pains. She thinks she maybe passed. It's been a really, really long ride to get here.

A few incoherent sounds issue from under the vehicle, and a scruffy looking guy covered in all kinds of dirt slides smoothly out. From out of his back pocket, he pulls out a cap and wipes away some oil that had dripped onto his forehead, and only managed to smear it further. It was hard to tell how old he was judging by the way the grime just dug into every crease of his face, exaggerating their depth, but she could hazard a guess he was maybe in his late twenties. Could be wrong though. She's horrible at that kind of guesswork. She still hasn't figured out the magic behind the weight guessing booths at the fairs at home. Forever a mystery. But his eyes look young and his smile friendly, so there's _one _redeeming feature.

"Why hey there, you another of them Vault Hunters?" He asked, looking her up and down and Gaige inwardly cringed. That's right. She's almost forgotten how backwards most people supposedly sound on Pandora. There's a daily firework show she don't know about here? "Yer buddies are over at Zed's doing some kinda operation or sumsuch. Ah'd stay away if ah were you. Zed's a trip an' a half – haha – but yeah, he sometimes scares me a little."

Gaige stared, so there _are_ other Vault Hunters here. The rumors were true. On the shuttle from Eden-5, she's heard some chatter over the ECHOnet about a group of Vault Hunters that faced Handsome Jack and lived to tell the tale. Many report a Siren among them, although nothing is really specific. Just talk about a guy who knew a guy that was killed by one of them. And in very gruesome, if outrageous detail. The ECHOnet is a beautiful thing. Maybe she could check them out after her arm's patched up and make some introductions. Sure is better than Hunting alone in any case.

"Yeah, I'll catch up with them later," Gaige says evasively and points at her useless, but still _totally __awesome_, prosthetic. "I'm actually looking for some spare parts at the moment. I need an internal high voltage regu –"

"Aw dayum, ah knew ah was bound to get it right eventually," the grease monkey wrung his cap out and straightened it out on his head a little too aggressively. "Yer one of 'em robots, right? Now look here, ah don't want no trouble with a pretty thing like you, but if you _insist_..." He slips out a large wrench from a pocket and slaps it heavily into his hand. "... best make sure ah'm dead with yer first shot 'fore ah'll take ya with me!"

Gaige wasn't sure whether to laugh or be flattered. She settled instead on being worried for his mental health. Someone had to be. "Are you special or something? It's a prosthetic." She shakes her arm with her other hand in emphasis. "And right now, it's not working. I'll fix it myself and pay for parts."

"_O__oooooh._..." his brows disappear under his cap and he laughs, mentioning her further inside the garage and taking a seat on a ridiculously large tire. "Well, why didn't ya say so? 'M name's Scooter, resident mechanic an' all 'round handyman up in these parts. Ah also run the Catch-A-Ride stations so whenever yer dogs are barkin', you just Catch-A-Ride and get rollin'. Haha, made that name up m'self. C'mere an' lemme take a lookit whatcha got right there."

Yup, there's something definitely special about Scooter. Nevertheless, she follows and shows him the damage. He sucks his teeth at the shredded metal and exposed circuitry and gives a low whistle. "Oh, that is a beauty, mhmm. This is a fine ass piece of machinery right here." He turns her arm every which way, openly admiring the design, and she smiles.

"Thanks, I made it myself," Gaige supplies, pleased with his inspection.

"Yep... an' it is _broke as hell. _That's a sad shame," Scooter shakes his head. "Now, you sit tight an' ah'll fetch whatcha need."

Finally feeling like she's getting a break, Gaige doesn't argue and sits down on the tire, pulling her arm into her lap. Scooter goes off to find whatever she needs and she can hear the clatter of toolboxes and shifting metal echo slightly in the large garage. It took a few moments, but then a thought hit her. How would _he_ know what she needs? Her tech is pretty advanced, and that's putting it modestly. But before she can voice her concern, she spots several ECHOsims stacked on a low shelf and curiously takes a closer look.

"Omg..." she whispers and runs a fingertip along a few titles. "What are you doing with the latest sims on waveform possessing circuits? And Hyperion _SDMS_ designs? Are you kidding me?"

"Oh, that stuff?" Scooter says somewhere across the room as she scans a few more sims. "Ah read 'em. That's what they're for, silly. All bootleg, but hell, they work just fine."

He says it with such an offhand nonchalance, as if they're nothing more than children's sims along with holographic little pictures to paint the scene. What kind of guy _is_ he? And then, that's where it hit's her again. Scooter's _so_ special, he must be some kind of sevant. Even _she_ has some problems grasping a few of the concepts contained in these sims without a few hiccups. The bloody mess that once was Marcy floats vividly to forefront of her mind... dammit. _One hiccup. _

Guh, but getting only third place still stings.

"I'll be in town for a long while, Vault Hunting and stuff," she says absently, still shifting through the sims. "Mind if I borrow a few?"

"Sure, ah don't mind," he says right behind her shoulder now and Gaige turns to find his hands full of everything she _does_ indeed need. Imagine that. "Drop by whenever."

"Scooter..." she begins, a small smile curling her lips. "I think we're gonna be good friends."

He gives a nervous kind of little chuckle and nearly drops a few things. "Do that mean friends with _benefits_ or..."

"I'm _seventeen_," she snaps.

"Ooooh..." Scooter nods slowly at this with a slight frown. "So, when are you legal?"

Gaige sighs. It's been a really long day.

* * *

"So..." Scooter says after a long silence and Gaige tries her best not to sniffle so loudly. "Are you legal yet?"

"Dammit Scooter, I just finished telling you Roland is _dead_ not two minutes ago!" Gaige punched his shoulder hard. And once more to make sure he felt it. "Can you, oh I don't know – contain yourself?"

"Ow! Dayum, yeah ah know," Scooter rubs his shoulder reproachfully. "And ah'm real sad an' all. _Real _sad. This is _sad _on my face. It's just ya look so pretty when ya been cryin', Gaige. Yer eyes are all lit an' yer cheeks are all like... somethin' an' stuff. Y'know, ah – ah dunno the shit that just comes outta my mouth half the time. Jus' ferget ah said nuthin' an' we can get back to huggin' if ya want."

Gaige looks at him, arms outstretched, real sincerity etched into his face, and she knows why he says the things he says. Scooter's brutally honest in every sense of the word. Always saying what's on his mind, even if it doesn't help his image. It can be downright irritating and she might not like it sometimes, but she can appreciate honesty. So she forgives him. Just a little. Besides... he did call her pretty. Not that he hasn't before, no, loads of times. It was just... just different this time.

She steps closer and let's him drape his arms around her shoulders once more. Scooter smells like oil and something metallic she couldn't place, the garage maybe, and God, she misses her old workshop at back at Eden-5. Her father, her old neighborhood, hell even her school to a certain degree. Just everything and anything she left behind because at this moment, life suddenly sucks again now that Roland's dead and she's not quite sure what to do. None of them do, and she feels a little bit out of her depth for the very first time.

"Alright, screw this," Gaige mumbles into the collar of his vest. It's comfy and warm in his arms right now all wrapped in motor oil, but she's tired of sniveling and she's sure her clothes are going to be stained if she let's him hold her much longer. She steps away from Scooter and hurriedly wipes her face, almost poking her eye in the process. "I got snot on your shirt, I think. Sorry." She laughs weakly.

Scooter chuckles and wipes away at the dampness. "It ain't nuthin'. Had worse stains than that before." She can only imagine.

Scooter rocks back and forth on his heels for a moment, the most awkward she's seen him. And for one wild moment, she wants to tell him that her eighteenth birthday has come and gone. About a week ago actually. It hadn't even crossed her mind to tell anyone since it seemed so unimportant compared to saving Pandora. Birthdays and all that kind of normal everyday shit doesn't belong in his planet at all, she thinks. But right now, she really wants to come clean because she owes him that much. And just as she decides to make up her mind, an ECHO loudly sounded and both of them did a kind of pocket pat dance trying to find out who's it was. As it so happens, it belonged to Gaige. She stuck her tongue out at Scooter, suddenly feeling immensely popular before answering.

"Gaige, this is Maya," Maya says needlessly and Gaige had to hold back a roll of her eyes.

"Maya, this is Gaige," she responds instead and somewhere behind her, Scooter chuckles lightly.

A short pause here and she thinks the older woman cottoned on to her patronizing. "We're all having a drink at Moxxi's tonight. We'll probably be back real late. The guy's need it right now. Especially Mordecai and Brick. They knew Roland best. I'd invite you but... you know."

She knows. As long as Maya's around, Gaige can't even look at Moxxi's bar twice. The Siren likes to lay all these rules on her in a lawless planet just because of her age. Never mind that by now, Gaige has long since grown numb to the gore flecking against her cheek when she blows a midget's head off. But one bottle of rakk ale? Oh noes! Never that! Secretly, she thinks the Siren only restricts the bar from her just so she can keep Axton as a permanent drinking buddy all to herself. She can go ahead and keep him. Axton's alright and all, she likes him anyway, but she'd rather drink with Salvador if given the choice. He at least seems like a riot, Axton... not so much.

"I understand," Gaige replies. "Don't worry about me, I'll be fine."

"Don't stay up too late, Salvador is cooking breakfast in the morning."

"Delish, I wonder who I'll be eating..." Gaige muses idly, hoping to get a reaction out of the older woman, but she had already disconnected. Damn. That was a good one too. Why is no one ever around recording the funny shit she says?

"Anyway..." she sighs and absentmindedly dusts off the huge tire that hasn't been moved an inch since she's first got here and sits down. It's become her usual seat by now. She wonders briefly, why Scooter needs so many. Sanctuary's up in the air after all. No real demand for tires. "I don't want to be alone in the HQ tonight. It's like... I expect him to be there, y'know? Can I hang out here?"

"Sure," Scooter looks up at her briefly and starts cleaning out his nails with what she thinks is a tooth pick. "Ah think ah got a deck of cards somewheres to kill time with if yer interested."

"Perfect." Distractions are great right now. She sucks at her teeth, the feeling of something missing just there, right at the tip of her tongue. Gaige eyes Scooter critically and wonders... "Can you do me a favor?"

"Shoot, y'know ah can't say no to you."

"Good, because I wanna say fuck Maya and ask you to get me some rakk ale," she grins. "Feels wrong playing cards and feeling shitty when we should be having a drink to Roland's memory."

"Oooh that? Yeah... yeah, no," Scooter shakes his head. "Nope. That ah can't do."

"C'mon, why not? _Down with the system!_ Remember?"

"'Cause rakk ale's pretty strong an' you'll be so outta it, you won't know whether to scratch yer watch or wind yer ass if ya know what ah'm sayin'," he laughs. "Sorry girly, but you look like a lightweight and ah may or may not take advantage of you." He pauses, as if thinking it over and she's surprised how well he can keep a straight face. "Maybe..."

Gaige bites her lip and wonders vaguely... if she'd mind. The splatter of Roland's blood on her shirt and watching him die not a few hours ago suddenly opened her eyes to what they're truly trying to achieve... and how high the price can be. And in short: shit got real. For the first time since she got here, she's not sure she's going to reach the Vault. Nothing is certain and there's no such things as angels because they can die too. So if she has a drink with a man she's grown to really like over these past several weeks, and if something happens... it could be the only good thing to happen to her in a long while.

She's not a kid anymore. She's a grown woman of science and asskickery and she can do what she likes. "For Roland," she presses.

"Yer makin' a mistake..." Scooter chuckles and she knows she's already won with the slow rise of his smile.

"Than I'll only drink _one_."

* * *

An hour and two and a half mistakes later, she's laughing so hard, she doesn't even care about the funny snorting sounds she makes and if Scooter's noticed, he hasn't said a thing. "... so the mornin' after, my momma found me all tuckered out in a skag den. Even took a picture an' uploaded it on the ECHOnet, said it was cute," Scooter says with a lick of a card and slaps it onto his forehead. "It was cold enough to freeze the balls offa brass bullymong that day an' ah had nuthin' but my socks on. Jus' balls to the wind covered _all_ in dirt an' blood an' shit."

Gaige thinks she sees the Queen of diamonds on Scooter's forehead but couldn't be sure at the moment. It's a face card for sure anyway. Everything was a bit fuzzy and warm at the edges and she feels... invincible... and she can totally get why people drink. Right now, the memory of Roland's death and Lilith's strangled scream after isn't so sharp. She's having a good time right now and everything is... perfect. She clumsily slaps a card on her head too, only for it to flutter to the floor. Oh, that's right. Lick, _then_ slap.

"Blood?" Gaige wrinkles her nose. "You weren't like... raped by skags or something right? Because that would explain a few things..."

"_That_ – is an ugly rumor, mhmm. Whoever said that is a filthy liar," he says and she can't breathe for laughing at the straight look on his face. "Naw, ah'm kiddin' ya. Well ah _did_ say ah was gonna run away and be a wild skag boy. Ah think ah maybe ate some road kill is all. Prolly."

Gaige finally manages to make her card stick and grins. "Okay, what I really wanna know... is why did you only leave your socks on?"

"Pfft. Dunno. Cold feet? Ah was like, nine at the time. Did a lotta stupid shit," Scooter chuckles and she loves the way his accent sounds right now.

He's slumped down in his chair across from her, cap on his knee, legs propped up on the tire at her side and she tries to remember how she's gotten so used to him being so close. The bottle at his side scrapes the cement lightly as he picks it up and she's suddenly very interested in the way his throat works as he takes a swig. Maybe it's because he's not wearing his hat, or that his face looks a bit cleaner, or hell – it could just be the drinks – but Scooter looks really cute at the moment. He briefly licks the lasting moisture off his lips, she couldn't help but wet her own lips in response.

She wants him, she realized.

How the hell did that happen?

"C'mon now Miss Mechomancer, it's your turn and ah'm lookin' to even the score."

Oh, right. The game. They've been playing Blind Man's Bluff the last two games since handling too many cards at the moment was starting to be a challenge. Gaige gently touches her forehead to make sure the card's still there and squints across at Scooter. What was it again? King of diamonds? She can't tell and she might be working with less than ten percent of her motor skills right now but something tells her it's a good idea to stand and take a closer look.

"Whoa there," Scooter says, the concern in his brows making the card stuck there sink a bit. "Yer a bit tipsy an' like ah said, that rakk ale hits pretty hard."

"I'm totally fine," Gaige says and absently plucks Scooter's cap from his knee, turning it over in her hands before slipping it on backwards. She's always looked good in hats.

Suddenly remembering just why she got up in the first place, she leans closer to take a better look. Feeling unbalanced, Gaige stumbles, accidentally knocking away the rest of her ale; bottle making a musical little sound as it rolled away. Bracing herself for impact, Gaige threw her arm out and met nothing but air, Scooter's leg having broken her fall. She giggled uproariously as she hung there, inches away from the floor as her card fluttered off under the chair. She thinks it could have been a six of spades.

"Alright, ah'm startin' to feel a lil' bit bad 'bout yer drinkin'," Scooter sighs, slowly lowering his leg until Gaige was a giggly mess on the floor. "Let's getcha home before you start pukin' all over the place."

"No, no," she insists and carefully pulls herself up by his knee, cap askew. "Just stood up too fast or something, really. I'm buzzed, yeah, but not piss drunk." And that much was true, she felt good. Just giggly and a little unsteady, but not sick at all. She can even recall with perfect clarity every element to the periodic table in her head.

"Nope. Ah'm takin' ya back. C'mon now."

As Scooter starts to set his drink down, Gaige doesn't think. She only reacts, and the only thing she knows right now is that she doesn't want to go anywhere or be anywhere but here right now. Before he get's the chance to stand, Gaige pulls herself up into his lap, and Scooter's bottle hits the floor with a loud thunk before it too rolled away.

"We're not going anywhere now," she says and bites her lip, a nervous flutter settling in her belly, but she's not afraid. Somehow, she wants this right now and maybe everything today has been leading up to this moment all along. It'd sure as hell make everything worth it. Her eyes drag over his face, still and almost slack with surprise, and land on the card stuck to his head. Jack of Hearts. It suits him. She sweeps it off his forehead and chucks it somewhere past her shoulder. No more games.

"Aw shit, is you seriously sitin' on my lap right now? Oh, no. Shit. Now ah'm _definitely_ feeling bad," he says and looks somewhere over her left shoulder, thigh muscles tensing beneath her. "Yer drunk, Gaige. Git off 'fore we both do sumthin' you'll regret, 'cause ah won't."

Gaige thinks back about they way he practically admitted not being above taking advantage of her, and she slips her arms past his shoulders, leaning close enough to feel the light stubble on his skin tickle her cheek. "I don't think you get it, I'm taking advantage of _you_," she whispers in his ear.

Scooter tips his head back and she plays with the small hairs at the nape of his neck. "When you say it like _that_ now..." he slides one hand up onto her hips, the other on the side of her thigh. "... but ah dunno... maybe we should –"

And whatever they should do, dies in an instant as Gaige does what she wants instead and presses her lips against his. They're thin, but not unpleasant; still wet with bitterness from his last sip of ale. His hands tighten when she traces her tongue experimentally along his bottom lip and a small little gasp escapes them, his hips bucking against her. He returns the gesture and it's clear he doesn't know what he's doing, but when his lips stumble sweetly against hers, she doesn't really mind at all. She's not sure she knows what she's doing either.

She feels the pad of his thumb find a tear in her leggings and rub small circles there and that small little patch of skin is on fire. Scooter deepens the kiss, and he's driving her insane with how responsive he is because she's got nothing but leggings between them and she can feel every inch of him straining against his pants between her thighs. Scooter breaks away from her lips and starts working his way down her neck with hot, open mouthed nips and kisses, and she grinds down harder against him.

"Gunna have to stop me now," he breathes into the hollow of her throat as his hand slides further up her thigh, and she has no intention to do such a thing. "Ah'd hate to ruin ya so young."

Her mind is sluggish, focused entirely where and what his hands are doing to her, but suddenly something clicked in her head and she remembered. "I... _oh_..." she gasps, and fuck he's making it hard to talk right now. "I have good news... my birthday was last week so..."

Scooter's hand stops and she bites back a moan, "What? Are you sayin' ah'm in what ah think is second base with you, and _now_ you tell me yer legal?"

Gaige blushes and lets out a giddy little giggle. "Surprise?"

"Hell yeah ah'm surprised," he shakes his head and kisses her softly, his hands slowly making her body shudder again."Do me a solid though..."

"Don't think I can say no right now," Gaige barely manages to say.

"Can ah just keep thinking yer seventeen in mah head or is that too weird? Yeah... yeah that's weird. Ferget ah said nuthin'."

Gaige kisses him between giggles and hopes she's going to have another long night on Pandora.

* * *

**Notes: **I HAVE FOUND MY OTP PEOPLE. And it is Gaige/Scooter. Yup. I am NOT ashamed. I have grown to really love it. Also, for those of you who don't know, this was actually ripped out of a series of one-shots I'm in the middle of writing called Passing Strange. This chapter was so long, and the pairing so unique, I thought I had to re-post it as it's own thing. Anyway, thanks for reading!


End file.
